Arsene Wenger hopes to celebrate his 18th anniversary as Arsenal manager with a victory - and delivered a warning the Champions League has become "predictable."

Wenger officially took charge as the Gunners' boss on October 1st 1996 and has qualified for the Champions League's group stages in 18 consecutive seasons, and reached its final once.

The Frenchman fears the biggest change during his time at the north Londoners has been the emergence of a monopoly on the big stars, with Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Chelsea dominating in recent seasons.

Gunners boss Wenger said: "I never look back. What is always your target is to take the maximum potential out of the team.

"The only thing I would say this season is that this team has huge potential and it has to come out. At the moment I am more worried about that.

"For the rest... Champions League evolution... maybe it was more open 15 years ago than it is today. The concentration of the big players in a short number of clubs is much more than it was before.

"It's much more predictable today - the outcome of the Champions League - than it was ten years ago. It's harder to win it.

"As well more exciting because if you make a poll tomorrow and say to people, 'Give me four clubs who will win the Champions League', 80 or 90 per cent of people will say these four clubs [Real, Barca, Bayern and Chelsea].

"I don't think that we are one of the four who will be favourites to win it, but football is strange, and not always predictable. Let's first qualify from the group stage and see."